


It Happened One Day at the Natural History Museum

by angelofbenignmalevolence



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Child Tracys, Gen, Humor, natural history museum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:28:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27990045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelofbenignmalevolence/pseuds/angelofbenignmalevolence
Summary: Gordon can handle all manner of sea creatures. But lizards? That’s a whole other ball game. Sometimes, you have your brothers to thank for your fears.
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931245
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	It Happened One Day at the Natural History Museum

**Author's Note:**

> I have a few things that I just want to get out of the way. I know that there is some question of whether Virgil or John is the second child of the Tracys based on a couple of different sources. I know that the most widely accepted birth order puts Virgil before John. For the purpose of this story, I have written John as the second oldest, meaning the birth order will look like Scott, John, Virgil, Gordon, Alan. Based on the dates for the boys that I was able to find regarding ages, I’m looking at an 11 year gap between Scott and Alan. I’m looking at Scott as 16, John as 13, Virgil as 11, Gordon as 8, and Alan as 5 years old. Prompt "Biting + Gordon" requested by @misssquidtracy on tumblr.

Lucille Tracy was an excellent mother. Everyone knew it. Everyone except Lucille Tracy herself. The other families in the small Kansas town where they lived knew that she had her hands full with five boys, especially with their father deployed by NASA for much of the year, if not a year or more at a time. Lucille ran a tight ship, and there were never any complaints about her young boys from those around the town.

The boys often spent time on their mother’s family ranch at Gran Roca, but more often than not on the hot summer days where the weather was too oppressive for riding or running or any other manner of outdoor play, Lucille could be seen with her brood in tow headed toward some kind of educational opportunity. Lucille wanted to make sure that her boys were never letting their brains rot over the summer by spending too long in front of the TV or playing too many video games, and so once a week, the boys could be seen spread out across the library. Each boy had their own library card, with the exception of the youngest, who wasn’t yet old enough for his own. The boys were expected to bring home at least one book on their weekly trip to the library, and John was often seen lugging home a number of them in the messenger bag his mother had given him.

In addition to the weekly library trips, there was also a weekly excursion as a family. Some weekends it was to the zoo, because little Alan loved to go and watch the animals. Sometimes it was to the aquarium so little Gordon could watch the fish and the sharks with wonder in his eyes. Sometimes it was to the art museum so Virgil could spend an afternoon practicing his painting skills by copying the masters in the museums. Sometimes it was to the planetarium to sate John’s curiosity about everything in space. Sometimes it was to a sports hall of fame to satisfy the desire for everything adrenaline for Scott. And sometimes….well….sometimes it was to the natural history museum because that was what Lucille enjoyed most.

So when the young family found themselves together at the Natural History Museum, it was just another family field trip. Lucille flashed the membership pass at the admissions desk and they smiled and waved her along. They were well known and beloved by most of the staff, as the boys were usually well behaved, and everyone that had been around for the “diorama incident” with Virgil and Gordon a few years ago had either left or completely forgiven the young boys.

Alan began to fuss, having not been cooperative for his nap before coming to the museum and Lucille knelt down to try to figure why Alan was upset. John walked over to the map of the museum, regardless of the fact that most of them knew the layout by heart, having spent so many summers in and out of the museum. Scott and Virgil joined him at the map.

“Think they’ve got that new exhibit on flight up?” Scott asked, not wanting to sound too excited. A young man just entering high school couldn’t be seen to be _too_ excited about an educational trip, after all.

“I doubt it,” John said softly as he looked over the map. “They were saying that it was going in sometime late this year. I imagine it will be up in the fall.” Scott frowned, but John didn’t seem to take any notice.

“Well, last time we came we spent a lot of time in the geological area for Alan,” Scott said. The youngest had loved playing with the little rock samples that they had out for the children to touch and had cried loudly when they tried to pull him away.

“There’s always the hall of biome dioramas,” Virgil offered. He’d taken to bringing his sketchbook to practice sketching the dioramas. Every time he came, he improved just a little bit more, though he did notice that security kept their eye on him after the ‘incident’ with Gordon a few years ago.

“But they never change!” Scott protested. “It’s the same old lion jumping on its prey and the same polar bear who is never going to catch the fish.”

“They’re museum exhibits, Scott,” John said. “Sometimes the big dioramas like that don’t change.”

“They’re museum exhibits, John,” he said in the same bored and tired tone. “They’re old and stuffy and full of things that people don’t care about anymore.”

“Some people care about them,” John said. “Their traveling planetarium show was pretty incredible.” Scott rolled his eyes, ruffling John’s hair and earning him an indignant squawk from the red-head. “Hey!”

“You’re such a nerd,” Scott said, nothing but love and affection in his voice. John gave him a glare as he fixed his hair.

“I’m aware,” John said dryly. “Look, you don’t have to stick around and follow me. We can all appreciate different areas. Most of us are old enough to not be tied to someone’s apron strings.”

“What about Gordon?” Virgil asked, looking to the sandy haired blond who was currently making faces at their youngest brother to help him stop fussing. “I want to go to the dioramas and the security people don’t like it when he’s in there.”

“I’m thinking about going to see the bee exhibit,” Scott said. “You know, with the live hive? I don’t think it’s a good idea to put Gordon anywhere near a live beehive.” John rolled his eyes.

“You two are such babies. The diorama incident was a one time thing and I think Gordon has enough sense to know not to go anywhere near where there are live bees,” John said. “Our brother can’t get in that much trouble.” Scott and Virgil exchanged a look and a knowing smile.

“Alright then, John, you watch him for the afternoon,” Virgil said. John opened his mouth to protest, but realized that he had walked himself right into that. He let out a defeated sigh.

“Yeah, ok. I’ve got him,” he said. “Maybe I’ll go take him to see the dinosaurs.” Scott grinned, happy enough to be relieved of babysitting duty. He gave Virgil a high five before they wandered off in the direction of their respective favorite exhibits. John took a deep breath and then made his way over to his mother and little brothers.

“Hey Gordon, you want to go look at some dinosaurs with me?” John asked, smiling and holding out a hand to entreat the young one. Gordon grinned and jumped down off the bench where he was sitting next to his mother, running over and taking big brother’s hand. Lucille offered John a grateful smile which John returned.

With a quick wave back to Lucille, John led Gordon through the crowd of people heading into the various exhibit halls. Gordon raced forward as they approached the wing with the dinosaur displays, tugging John behind him.

“C’mon John! You have to tell me everything about all of them!” Gordon said excitedly. John smiled at Gordon’s eagerness. His curiosity sometimes got the better of him, but John was happy to still see wonder in his younger brother’s eyes. As they entered the exhibit hall, John had to maneuver Gordon around a team of workmen were doing some needed maintenance around one of the dinosaur skeletons.

“Did you know that the word dinosaur comes from Greek meaning ‘terrible lizard?’” John asked. Gordon’s amber eyes went wide and he shook his head.

“But we don’t have to worry about them, right?” Gordon said.

“That’s right,” John said. “They died out a very long time ago.” Gordon grinned, running up to one of the skeletal figures and pointing at it eagerly. “John! John, what’s this one?” John walked up to it and looked at the placard detailing information about the skeleton.

“According to the sign here, this skeleton is a full-scale replica of a niobrarasaurus. It says here that it was an armored dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period with thick plating and a tiny head,” John said. Admittedly, dinosaurs weren’t really his thing, but his younger brothers seemed to think that John had all the answers in his head. Gordon nodded and then turned to look at another skeleton, cutting across the walkway and nearly tripping up a couple who were wandering the museum as well. “Gordon! Careful!”

“Sorry!” Gordon said, his enthusiasm for learning making the couple smile and laugh good-naturedly before they moved on to another exhibit. “This one looks like it’s got a duckbill. What’s this one called?” John moved over and looked at that sign as well.

“Looks like this one is a claosaurus,” John said. “This one is also from the late Cretaceous period.” John looked like he was going to read more from the placard but Gordon had already moved on to another fossil. John let out a sigh.

“Gordon, slow down,” John said. He could see why Virgil and Scott had foisted the responsibility of watching over Gordon onto John. You didn’t actually get to _see_ the museum with him. Gordon paid little heed to his brother’s chiding and continue to bounce from display to display.

“Ooooh! This one has big, sharp teeth!” Gordon said. John nodded.

“Yep. It means that this guy probably ate meat primarily,” he said. Gordon frowned.

“Lizards eat meat?”

“Some of them do,” he said. “But again, you don’t have to worry about lizards this big anymore. They went extinct millions of years ago and most of the lizards that are around today are too small to take a bite out of you.”

“Most?” John ruffled Gordon’s hair, earning a squawk of indignance.

“Don’t worry about it, squiddo,” he said.

They had gone through nearly every display in the exhibit hall when John started to herd Gordon back towards the lobby where they were going to meet the rest of their family to figure out lunch. Gordon skipped forward, rushing forward to take one last look at some of the skeletons before they left. John rolled his eyes and followed more sedately.

“Gordon! Be careful! Wait for me!” John said. Gordon paid little attention, turning around to stick his tongue out at his brother. John gave him a look before his eyes went wide. “Gordon!”

“Wha-OW!” Gordon said as his tiny body connected with the ladder on which the maintenance man was standing. There was a panicked cry as the ladder began to teeter dangerously. “Uh-oh….”

John was frozen in place and time seemed to slow down as the man began to fall. The man’s arms flailed, grabbing for anything that would stop him from plummeting from his previous perch. His hands found purchase on the dinosaur skeleton that he had been working next to.

His arms wrapped around the neck of the dinosaur, the display wobbling dangerously as the man scrambled for purchase. Several of the adults moved to get the ladder to a position where the man could regain his footing. Gordon began to back away slowly, his eyes wide with the situation currently unfolding in front of him. The well-meaning bystanders were able to get the ladder underneath the struggling man, who released the display as he regained his footing.

There was a terrible creak and groan as the display began to shudder and tremble. John felt his body moving in slow motion as he saw the dinosaur skull begin to give way from the display. He tried to move forward, tried to grab Gordon out of the way. Gordon remained rooted to the spot as the giant skull above him opened its gaping mouth wide and began to descend in his direction. He hunched into a ball and there was a great clatter as the whole display came crashing down around Gordon.

John stopped where he was, his heart skipping several beats as security and museum professionals began to make their way to the scene of the accident. John rushed forward, only to be stopped by a security person.

“That’s my brother!” John insisted.

“It’s ok...we’re going to make sure he’s safe…” he said. John looked uncertain. What was he going to tell their mother? How could he look her in the face when she had trusted Gordon to him and he had let this happen. His mind began to spin with all of the terrible thoughts of a child who knew that this would be the end of their parents’ love.

The museum professionals began to move the pieces of the skeleton and there was a soft murmur of relief when inside the mouth of the skeleton, Gordon was hunched into a ball, shaking irrepressibly but miraculously unharmed. They began to move the pieces of the exhibit around and the security guard pulled Gordon from his hiding spot.

“You’re one very lucky little boy,” the security guard said as he scooped Gordon up onto his hip to bring him over to John, whose heart was skipping beats in relief as his little brother was returned safe to him.

Lucille came around the corner and saw Gordon nearing tears in John’s arms. She moved over to them quickly, Virgil following close behind her. Scott stood away from the event with Alan on his hip, though it did nothing to hide the worry on his features. Lucille fussed over Gordon and pulled him into her arms, relieved that he was ok.

Lucille began to pack up the boys as the museum began to apologize profusely to her. She waved off their apologies, wanting to get her boys home where she could hold them and make sure they were truly safe. She pulled Gordon against her side and began to usher him out, John under her other arm. Virgil looked down at his younger brother and he gave him a calming smile.

“You know what I think, Squid?” he asked. Gordon looked at Virgil questioningly, his amber eyes brimming with tears. “I think you just became the coolest kid in school.”

“I did?” Gordon asked with a sniffle. Virgil nodded.

“You betcha,” he said. “I mean, it’s not every kid that can say they survived being bitten by a dinosaur, right?” Virgil asked. Gordon took a moment to consider the question, then a small smile broke out on his features.

“Yeah…I guess you’re right Virgil. I am pretty cool, huh?”


End file.
